By-Polls Underway in NA-69, PK-50

LAHORE: The polling process for by-elections on a National Assembly seat started on Thursday in Punjab’s NA-69 Khushab constituency and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s PK- 50 Haripur constituency.

Strict security arrangements were made in both the constituencies for the by-polls. The total number of registered voters was 3, 37,645 in Na-69. Moreover, voting was also started for by-elections in the PK-50, Haripur II constituency.

In the NA-69, Sumera Malik won 2002 election on the ticket of the National Alliance, she was a Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) candidate in 2008 while she was in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) fold in 2013 polls. In the 2013 election, Sumera Malik won with the seat for third consecutive term in the 2013 election with record 118,108 votes defeating the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Umer Aslam Awan, also for third time, who got 79,855 votes.

After 2013 election, on Umer Aslam Awan’s petition, Malik was disqualified by the Supreme Court and she then decided to field her son for the Jan 23 by-poll. Similarly in PK-50, the seat fell vacant after PTI’s elected MPA from this constituency, Yousaf Ayub Khan, was disqualified by an election tribunal in Sept 2013 and subsequently the Supreme Court also upheld his disqualification. The tribunal had disqualified Ayub Khan over the submission of a fake graduation degree in the previous election.-dawn